The Esplanade and the Art Lounge
Kunio Maekawa; renovation by Maekawa Associates · 1975; renovated 2012
Between the main gate and the sunken plaza lies the esplanade, a broad terrace paved in the same reddish brick as the walls, with the steel sphere at its centre and, along one side, a long glass fronted wing where you can see people eating and reading. This is the museum's social space. On exhibition days it fills with queues and school groups; on quiet mornings it is a place where park walkers sit on the low walls in the sun. From here you can see how Maekawa arranged the whole complex: the solid brick masses of the galleries, the transparent lounge, and the hollow of the courtyard beyond.
The glass wing houses the art lounge, opened in the 2012 renovation, a free space with comfortable seats and a wall of exhibition catalogues and art books that anyone can read. Above and beside it are a restaurant and a cafe with views over the esplanade and the trees, and below is the museum shop. Look at the way the glass is set flush and dark, so that the wing reads as a cool, quiet counterpart to the warm brick. The junction between old and new work is almost invisible, which was the point of the renovation.
Ueno Park itself is the wider context. Since the 1870s it has been Tokyo's museum quarter, with the national museums, the zoo, the university of the arts and the concert hall all within a few minutes' walk, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum was placed here deliberately to join that company. Finish your visit by walking through the park, especially in cherry blossom season or when the ginkgo trees by the museum turn yellow in late November.
Did You Know? The great ginkgo trees between the museum and the park path turn bright yellow every November and appear in countless photographs of the sphere.
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